2003: Preparing for the cookoff (part 1)

The greatest chili cookoff team on Earth presents the Greatest Show on Earth - the secret behind-the-scenes look at how Surfin' Chili gets ready for the JSC Chili Cookoff using time-honored traditions.

April 27, 2003: C minus one week and counting....

The weekend before the cookoff is the Tie-Dye and Propaganda Party. We start out with pristine white t-shirts emblazoned with the Surfin' Chili logo, and use rubber bands or string to section off parts of the shirt. Then we use squeezee bottles of RIT dye to drop the ink precisely (more or less) where we want. That's a far cry from the early days when we would dip the shirt segments into the bucket of dye.







While the shirts are drying, we start on the propaganda portion. We sit down with a stack of old magazines and take out pictures that we think would be good with funny captions. During the week we'll trim the edges, paste them on construction paper, and print out the captions with the Surfin' Chili web address. We also write down ideas that have come up for the skit, and think of "Burma-Shave" sign gags. After that, we'll know how many pieces of posterboard and other supplies we'll need.

2003: Preparing for the cookoff (part 2)

April 30, 2003: C minus three days and counting....

The Wednesday before the cookoff is when propaganda is allowed to be put up at JSC. Things are much tamer than they used to be, with people rapelling off the roof of Bldg 1 to post signs outside windows, or disassembling and then reassembling a VW in the Bldg 4 lobby, or even leaving kegs of beer outside certain officials' offices. These days, the windows, walls, and doorways are covered with fliers, and the roadsides have all manner of signs.



Here are some of Surfin' Chili's fliers:

2003: Preparing for the cookoff (part 3)

May 2, 2003: C minus one day and counting....

The day before the cookoff is the pre-cookoff propaganda, booth setup followed by the Cut-Up Party.

The Showmanship judges have a pre-cookoff meeting where teams can serenade them, perform skits, or anything else they think would win them favor. For 2003, a number of the team members discussed the upgraded Jello-shot Delivery System (JDS) v1.1.

1997 flyer: ISO 9000

Two flyers we passed out at the 1997 cookoff:

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SURFIN’ CHILI:
CERTIFIABLE
(ISO 9000)


WHAT IS ISO-9000?

• ISO 9000 is a series of standards and guidelines that define the minimum requirements for an effective quality system accepted internationally.

Surfin’ Chili is the only chili cookoff team that is
ISO-9000 certified!

KNOW THE QUALITY POLICY:

• Surfin’ Chili is committed to providing a quality chili cookoff experience through rigorous application of our ISO 9000 certified beer chug, cherry bomb, booth, pyramid build, skit, tie-dying, and chili preparation processes.

Products and services required for the core functions of chili cookoffs:

Chili engineering and design * chili cook training * chili life sciences research * chili management * chili operations * space trivia * beer chug * cherry bomb * skit preparation * booth decoration * tie-dying party

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SURFIN’ CHILI:
CERTIFIABLE
(ISO 9000)


WHAT IS ISO-9000?

• ISO 9000 is a series of standards and guidelines that define the minimum requirements for an effective quality system accepted internationally.

Surfin’ Chili is the only chili cookoff team that is
ISO-9000 certified!

ISO 9000 Requirements	Surfin’ Chili Requirements
4.1 Management Responsibility	What management?
4.2 Quality System	Nothing spoiled
4.3 Design Control	Booth built by "Fat Boys What Don’t Climb"
4.4 Document and Data Control	Get recipe from Internet
4.5 Process Control	Wing it
4.6 Inspection and Testing	If you don’t like how it tastes, add some more stuff
4.7 Control of Nonconforming Product	Ask "Wrong Stuff"; they’ve got non-conforming chili
4.8 Control of Quality Records	Put info on our web site
4.9 Internal Quality Audits	Prep the night before
4.10 Statistical Techniques	Count the Judge’s and People’s Choice ballots